The Variety 95 Ha-Gō (九五式軽戦車 ハ号 Kyugoshiki keisensha Ha-Gō?) (also identified as the Type 97 Ke-Go) was a light tank used by the Imperial Japanese Army in combat operations of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second World War. Although it was very slow for a light tank, it proved adequate against opposing infantry in campaigns in Manchuria and China, as the Chinese National Revolutionary Army had very few tanks or anti-tank weapons to oppose them. However, the Sort 95 lacked the armor or armament of contemporary Allied tanks, and was regarded as obsolete by the start off of Globe War II. Much more than 2,000 units have been developed. It was also employed by Imperial Japanese Navy SNLF detachments in Pacific areas throughout conflict.
History and development

From early 1930s, the Japanese army began experimenting on a mechanized warfare unit combining infantry with tanks. Even so, the Variety 89 Medium tank could not keep pace with the motorized infantry, which could move at 40 km/h by truck. To solve this difficulty, the Army Technical Bureau proposed a new light tank at 40 km/h speed and started development in 1933. The prototype of the new tank was finished in 1934 at the Army’s Sagami Arsenal. It was a higher-speed and lightly-armored tank equivalent to the British cruiser tank or Soviet BT tank. Its code name was &quotHa-Gō&quot (ハ号) designated that it was the &quotthird type&quot of tank created.[3]

In 1935, a meeting was held at the Army Technical Bureau, at which time, the Type 95 was presented as a potential primary battle tank for mechanized infantry units. The infantry had issues that the armor was not thick sufficient for enough infantry support however, the cavalry indicated that the improved speed and armaments compensated for this thin armor. In the end, the infantry agreed, as the Sort 95 was nevertheless superior to the only accessible alternative, which was the armored automobile.

Production was began in 1935 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. By 1939, one hundred units had been constructed. Mitsubishi would go on to create a total of 853 in their own factories, with an additional 1250 units built by the Sagami Arsenal, Hitachi Industries, Niigata Tekkoshō, Kobe Seikoshō, and Kokura Arsenal.[two]

Sort 95 Ha-Go tanks in New Britain following the Japanese surrender

Variety 95 on show at the United States Army Ordnance Museum, front view

Proper side view.

Variety 95 at Tarawa

The Kind 95 was a key improvement over the Japanese Army’s earlier light tanks and tankettes, but was soon involved in an intensive system to produce improved variants such as the Manshū model (Sort M), the Ha-Gō’s direct descendant. Type M was technically identical but created for use in the Kwantung Army’s tank schools in Manchukuo and it was planned to be offered in far much more numbers to future Manchukuo Imperial Army armored units and was projected to be manufactured in that nation.

Yet another improvement was the Variety 98 Ke-Ni light tank that entered production in 1942 of which 200 autos had been constructed. This derivitative was greater armored and carried an armament comprising 1 Kind 100 37 mm gun and two 7.7 mm machine guns.

The Type 95 also served as the basis of the Type two Ka-Mi amphibious tank which gave very good service in Japan’s early campaigns of Planet War II.

[edit]
Style

The Sort 95 was a 7.four-ton automobile with a complement of three crewmen (generally a commander/gunner/loader, mechanic/bow machine gunner, and a driver).

Secondary armament consisted as two Sort 91 6.5mm machine guns, one particular mounted in the hull and the other in the turret facing to the rear. Trial use in Manchukuo and China confirmed that greater armament was desirable and the 6.5mm machine guns were exchanged for a lot more powerful 7.7mm Sort 97 light machine guns on the appropriate hand side, for use by the currently overworked commander/gunner in 1941. The original Sort 94 main gun was also replaced with a Sort 98 weapon of the very same caliber but with a higher muzzle velocity.

The hand-operated turret was tiny and extremely cramped for even the a single crewman usually located there (the commander), and was only becoming able to rotate in a 45 degree forward arc, leaving the back to be covered by the rear-facing machine gun which failed to compensate for this significant disadvantage.

The most characteristic feature of the Sort 95 tank was its easy suspension program. The tracks have been driven through the front sprocket. Two bogie wheels had been suspended on a single bell crank with two bell cranks per side. There had been two return wheels. The suspension had troubles early on with a tendency to pitch so badly on rough ground that the crew occasionally discovered it impossible to drive at any speed, and so it was modified with a brace to connect the pairs of bogies. In spite of this, the tank continued to give its customers a rough ride across any uneven ground, and was supplied with an interior layer of asbestos, useful in minimizing interior heat and defending the crew from injury when the tank moved at higher speed across rough terrain.[three]

This first production models utilized 1 110 hp (82 kW) Mitsubishi air cooled diesel engine with a leading speed of 25 mph (40 km/h). This was the identical engine that equipped the Type 89 I-Go medium tank. Later the much more effective engine Mitsubishi NVD 6120 with 120 hp (89.5 kW) was installed.[3] Some Sort 95 have been fitted with two reflectors in the front of the automobile for evening operations.

[edit]
Variants

Sort 95 tank in Bovington tank museum, Dorset

Sort 95 on show at the Battery Randolf US Army Museum, Honolulu, best rear view

Sort 95 Ha-Go tanks destroyed by an Australian 2 pounder gun in the Battle of Muar

1 of six Ha-Go tanks destroyed by an Australian two pounder gun in the Battle of Muar. The escaping crew have been killed by allied infantry covering the artillery
Variety three Ke-Ri
This was a proposed model with a Kind 97 57 mm gun as the primary armament. This design and style by no means got past testing in 1943.
Variety 4 Ke-Nu
The Sort four Ke-Nu was intended to address one of the most common complaints about the Kind 95 from its users – the cramped turret. The existing Type 95 turret was replaced by the turret of a Variety 97 Medium tank for a lot more space. Approximately 100 units were produced.
Variety 95 Manshū
The Type 95 Manshū was an operational and coaching tank derived from and very related to the Kind 95 Ha-Gō. These tanks have been detached to Manchukuo and belonged to the instruction unit of the Kwantung Army tank college.
Type 95 &quotTa-Se&quot Anti-Aircraft Tank
An experimental car named &quotTa-Se&quot was constructed in November 1941, using the chassis of Sort 95 Ha-Gō with a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun taken from the Type 98 20 mm anti-aircraft gun. Another version used a Type two 20 mm anti-aircraft gun. Neither model went into production.
Kind two Ka-Mi Amphibious Tank
This was the initial amphibious tank created in Japan, and was intended for use by the Navy’s SNLF. The pontoons could be detached right after landing by a fourth crewman from inside the tank. The chassis was based on the Type 95 Light Tank. The Type 2 Ka-Mi was encountered by the United States Marine Corps in the Marshall Islands and Mariana Islands, specifically on Guam, exactly where it was utilised in static defense positions.
Sort 95 &quotRi-Ki&quot Crane Automobile
The Sort 95 Ri-Ki was an engineering automobile for field functions. It had a 3-ton 4.five meter boomed crane.
120 mm self-propelled gun &quotHo-To&quot
The Variety 95 Ho-To was a Variety 38 120 mm howitzer mounted on the Variety 95 Ha-Go chassis. The gun was low-velocity but the HEAT shell enabled it to destroy the American M4 Sherman tank. This self-propelled gun was created along with the Ho-Ru self-propelled gun.
Type five Ho-Ru 47 mm self-propelled gun
The Ho-Ru was a light tank destroyer equivalent to the German Hetzer. The improvement of the Variety 5 Ho-Ru began in February 1945. The Type five Ho-Ru utilized the chassis of the Sort 95 Light Tank, but its suspension was enlarged to 350 mm track link width. The wheel guide pins had been set in two rows to hold a road wheel among them. The sprocket of the driving wheel was the grating type to gear with the wheel guide pins like on the Soviet T-34. It was armed with one 47 mm primary gun.
Type 98 Ke-Ni light tank
This final modification was somewhat lighter than the original Variety 95, even with its heavier (.62 inch) armor. It entered production in 1942, but only about 200 were manufactured.

[edit]
Combat history

When the Kind 95 entered service in 1935 it was a capable machine and comparable to any modern light tank in the globe. It was the greatest vehicle of its category accessible to the Japanese forces in any numbers from the 1930s to World War II, and was utilized mostly to help infantry or as cavalry reconnaissance and, to a lesser extent, as raiding automobiles. It could compete with the American M3 light tanks on the Philippines, while the British had really couple of tanks of any sort in Malaya or Burma in December 1941. [four]

The Kind 95 Ha-Gō proved moderately effective in the course of the early campaigns of late 1941 and early 1942, when Japanese forces overran British Malaya and seized the fortress city of Singapore. One particular key to the Japanese accomplishment in Malaya was the unexpected presence of their tanks in locations exactly where the British did not think tanks could be employed. The wet jungle terrain did not turn out to be an obstacle twelve Type 95s took part in the attack which broke the Jitra line on 11 December 1941.

The very first tank-vs-tank battles of the war was on 22 December 1941 during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Kind 95s of the 4th Tank Regiment clashed with M3s of the American 192nd Tank Battalion. Both tanks were armed with a 37 mm gun, and the M3 was far better armored nevertheless, the inexperienced American commanders failed to make great use of their tanks.

Two Variety 95 tanks have been deployed to support the Japanese landing at Milne Bay, late August 1942. Initially, the tanks proved profitable against the lightly armed Australian infantry, whose ‘sticky bombs’ failed to stick due to the humidity. Though the tanks had proved trustworthy in the tropical circumstances of Malaya, they could not deal with the volume of mud triggered by intense, virtually daily rainfall at Milne Bay. Each tanks had been bogged down and abandoned a couple of days soon after the landing.

The Variety 95 very first began to show its vulnerability during later battles against British/Commonwealth forces, exactly where the tank’s 37mm gun could not penetrate the armor of the British Matilda tanks which were deployed against them. The thin armor of the Sort 95 produced it increasingly vulnerable as Allied forces realized that common infantry weapons have been capable of penetrating the minimal armor about the engine block, and even its thickest armor could not withstand anything above rifle caliber. Its firepower was insufficient to take on other tanks such as the medium M4 Sherman or the M3 Stuart light tanks. [four]

As the tide of the war turned against Japan, the Sort 95s had been rising expended in banzai charges or had been dug-in as pillboxes in static defense positions in the Japanese-occupied islands. In the course of the Battle of Tarawa, seven entrenched Kind 95th opposed American landings. More were destroyed on Parry Island and on Eniwetok. On Saipan, Kind 95s attacked the American Marine beachhead on 16 June 1944 and a lot more were employed in the biggest tank battle in the Pacific the following day.

In the Battle of Guam on 21 July, ten Variety 95 had been lost to bazooka fire or M4 tanks. Seven more had been destroyed on Tinian on 24 July, and 15 far more on Battle of Peleliu on 15 September. Likewise, in the Philippines, at least ten Variety 95s had been destroyed in a variety of engagements on Leyte, and an additional 19 on Luzon. At the Battle of Okinawa, 13 Kind 95s and 14 Variety 97 Shihoto medium tanks of the 27th Tank Regiment faced 800 American tanks.

When the war ended hundreds of Variety 95s had been left in China. They had been utilized throughout the Chinese Civil War and by the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China for the duration of the Korean War.

Whether recognized as the Warhawk, Tomahawk, or Kittyhawk, the Curtiss P-40 proved to be a profitable, versatile fighter throughout the initial half of Planet War II. The shark-mouthed Tomahawks that Gen. Claire Chennault’s &quotFlying Tigers&quot flew in China against the Japanese remain among the most popular airplanes of the war. P-40E pilot Lt. Boyd D. Wagner became the 1st American ace of Planet War II when he shot down six Japanese aircraft in the Philippines in mid-December 1941.

Curtiss-Wright built this airplane as Model 87-A3 and delivered it to Canada as a Kittyhawk I in 1941. It served until 1946 in No. 111 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. U.S. Air Force personnel at Andrews Air Force Base restored it in 1975 to represent an aircraft of the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force.

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in far more hostile airspace or with such full impunity than the SR-71, the world’s fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s efficiency and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technologies developments for the duration of the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about 2,800 hours of flight time in the course of 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its final flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging three,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane more than to the Smithsonian.

By V-J Day, September 2, 1945, Corsair pilots had amassed an 11:1 kill ratio against enemy aircraft. The aircraft’s distinctive inverted gull-wing design permitted ground clearance for the huge, three-bladed Hamilton Regular Hydromatic propeller, which spanned a lot more than 4 meters (13 feet). The Pratt and Whitney R-2800 radial engine and Hydromatic propeller was the largest and one of the most strong engine-propeller combinations ever flown on a fighter aircraft.

Charles Lindbergh flew bombing missions in a Corsair with Marine Air Group 31 against Japanese strongholds in the Pacific in 1944. This airplane is painted in the colors and markings of the Corsair Sun Setter, a Marine close-support fighter assigned to the USS Essex in July 1944.

Whether recognized as the Warhawk, Tomahawk, or Kittyhawk, the Curtiss P-40 proved to be a profitable, versatile fighter throughout the 1st half of World War II. The shark-mouthed Tomahawks that Gen. Claire Chennault’s &quotFlying Tigers&quot flew in China against the Japanese stay among the most popular airplanes of the war. P-40E pilot Lt. Boyd D. Wagner became the initial American ace of World War II when he shot down six Japanese aircraft in the Philippines in mid-December 1941.

Curtiss-Wright built this airplane as Model 87-A3 and delivered it to Canada as a Kittyhawk I in 1941. It served until 1946 in No. 111 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. U.S. Air Force personnel at Andrews Air Force Base restored it in 1975 to represent an aircraft of the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force.

No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in much more hostile airspace or with such full impunity than the SR-71, the world’s quickest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird’s functionality and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technologies developments for the duration of the Cold War.

This Blackbird accrued about two,800 hours of flight time throughout 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its final flight, March six, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, four minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging three,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight’s conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.

By V-J Day, September 2, 1945, Corsair pilots had amassed an 11:1 kill ratio against enemy aircraft. The aircraft’s distinctive inverted gull-wing design and style permitted ground clearance for the massive, three-bladed Hamilton Normal Hydromatic propeller, which spanned more than four meters (13 feet). The Pratt and Whitney R-2800 radial engine and Hydromatic propeller was the largest and 1 of the most strong engine-propeller combinations ever flown on a fighter aircraft.

Charles Lindbergh flew bombing missions in a Corsair with Marine Air Group 31 against Japanese strongholds in the Pacific in 1944. This airplane is painted in the colors and markings of the Corsair Sun Setter, a Marine close-help fighter assigned to the USS Essex in July 1944.